Are you tired of reading blog post after blog post about personal branding, providing value and content?

Are you tired of reading blog post after blog post about personal branding, providing value and content?

I know I am sick of it. They all start to read the same after awhile. All of them, don’t get me wrong are great blog posts, and I will continue to share them on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with you. However, I would like to see something for a change more focused on how to find your brand, provide value and where to locate all this great content that you need to be sharing on social media.

Here’s my take on it:

To find your brand you need to sit down in peace and quiet, and think about what your purpose is for using social media. Do you want to sell something? Educate? Expand your connection base, etc…. If you are an individual providing a service you need to establish your personal brand first, which is what I needed to do!

When I started using social networking sites my goal was to let everyone know who Lissa Duty was and what I was about! I needed to brand myself first and foremost, then focus on growing my business. I went out and established connections with those that are influential in the areas and industries that I focus on. i.e. Small Business Owners, Consultants and Social Media. I identified @BillHurlbut, @PattyFarmer and @LinkedInQueen.

I learned all I could about them, who they were and how I could connect with them. I joke and say “I made them my best friends”. Not literally! I made sure I got to know them on a personal level, which was who they were, what they represented and the value they provide in the social networking community. I soon learned how smart and connected they were. I didn’t ask them – “Please tell your connections about me on social media”. I instead focused on developing a relationship and rapport with them, so they would want to tell their friends about me.

How to provide value? First you need to determine what kind of information would be of interest to those following you. Keep in mind it does need to be related to your industry for the most part, after all you are using social media to sell your services/products right? Think about what you know that is essential to your industry and your clients. Share tips that would help your ideal client make important decisions. Of course, don’t share company secrets or give away the milk for FREE. (I’m sure you all have heard the phrase “Why buy the cow, when they can get the milk for FREE”.) Share enough to make them want to connect with you in a more personal way. Perhaps they’ll message you a follow up question.

Content – the biggie! This covers two areas:

    • Finding industry related articles that would interest your followers. Start using a RSS reader like Google Reader and every time you find a blog that someone else has Tweeted or shared on Facebook/LinkedIn that would interest you and your connections subscribe to it in Google Reader. This is a quick and easy way to find great content for you to share on social networking sites. (Watch videos on eHow – How to use & setup Google Reader.)

 

  • Writing content yourself to share on your blog. Ask your connections on social media what they would like to learn more about related to your industry. I often find questions that people ask me about social media turn into some really great blog posts! Share success stories of your other clients. Get your readers interested in reading and learning more about you. (Read more about blogging.)

I trust this post gave you some ideas on how to build your personal brand, provide value and content, instead of just all the whys! Give me your feedback and let me know what you think needs to be added or you would like to read more about in future blog posts!

Thanks for reading!

Comments

  1. Lissa, you said it. We read so much useless stuff on FB, Twitter and other social media that I even have people on “hide” (didn´t want to delete them because I still have some kind of connection to them). But then, I am trying to tell them that what they do is boring or even inappropriate, I tell them by posting this on my profile:
    http://www.jenfongspeaks.com/9-things-you-should-never-post-to-your-social-networks/
    But did they get it? No, because they´re busy posting stuff and never read what others might have to say. So, people, listen up and don´t waste our time, rather post something that´s relevant!
    Thank you, Lissa, for this article

  2. Great post, Lissa! Another great source of content I use for resource links on social media is http://alltop.com – you can create your own custom page, filtering out the mega list to only topics that you want to focus on, and then it’s easy and fast to get great stories/posts to share. I use bit.ly link shortening to shorten and track the links and I keep my Twitter updates to less than 120 so they’re easy to retweet.

    Love your work and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching you build your brand on social media. Keep up the awesome work!

    Vicki Flaugher
    @Smartwoman

  3. Yes quite right. I’m a newcomer to Twitter and besides enjoying myself, I can see that it is a great way of paving the roads to people you want to meet, and/or know. I’m not sure about how to turn this into money yet, but hopefully that will come somewhere down the line.

  4. Lissa, this was a fantastic post. I appreciate that you went deeper into the typical discussions of branding and actually provided practical advice. Great job!

  5. Alicia, thanks for your feedback! I am glad to know it hit home with you!

  6. Thanks for the link to the other blog post! It was good! Added their blog to my Google Reader!

  7. Rosemary, if you start with the 1st step – branding, the money will come later! At least, that is how it has worked for me!

  8. Vicki, thanks for your feedback and tip about All Top for me and my readers! I read the website, but have never really explored deeply the other features. I’ll do so for sure now!

  9. Excellent post! All too often, people speak about the importance of branding, but they don’t mention the all too important part of that – how to do it! Thanks for the very valuable information!

  10. Lissa,

    you are right on the money! So often I too find clients in too big a hurry to jump into social media that they don’t ” sit down in peace and quiet, and think about what their purpose is for using social media.”

    Well said! Good stuff!

    Fred, Chief of Marketing FunCitySocialMedia

  11. Fred, thanks for your comment! Means a lot to me to have a fellow professional agree on this point!

  12. Lissa – yeah, I finally got over here to read this post.

    I have a lot of work to do on my own branding as well as my overall business – as it seems my path is beginning to go in a different direction.

    Now I have to get over and read your post about working at Mari Smith’s booth!